Chinese bank notes from faithful are placed in front of a portrait of Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama at Kumbum monastery, where Dalai Lama used to live, on the outskirts of Xining, Qinghai province, July 6, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon

BEIJING | Tue Oct 22

(Reuters) - China has no intention of altering its "correct" policies in the restive region of Tibet as they have brought unprecedented achievements, a government white paper said on Tuesday, slamming the romanticized notion Tibet was once an idyllic fairyland.
China has long defended its iron-fisted rule in remote and mountainous Tibet, saying the region suffered from dire poverty, brutal exploitation of serfs and economic stagnation until 1950, when Communist troops "peacefully liberated" Tibet and introduced "democratic reforms" in 1959.

When President Xi Jinping took office earlier this year there had been expectations in some quarters he may take a softer line on Tibet, partly because his late father, a reformist vice premier, had a close bond with the Dalai Lama.

But Xi has shown no sign of changing course in Tibet.

In a lengthy policy paper carried by the official Xinhua news agency, the government said that Tibet under Chinese rule had achieved a great deal.

"Today's Tibet is developing economically, making progress politically, has a flourishing culture, a harmonious society and a good environment; its people are happy and healthy," it said.

"Tibet's development cannot be separated from this correct path," the white paper added.

Tensions in China's Tibetan regions are at their highest in years after a spate of self-immolation protests by Tibetans, which have led to an intensified security crackdown.

More than 120 Tibetans have set themselves alight since 2009, mainly in heavily ethnic Tibetan areas of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces rather than in what China terms the Tibet Autonomous Region. Most have died.

The white paper rejected the criticism, saying that "any fair-minded person would be filled with amazement" at the advancements China has bought to Tibet.

"There are some others in the world who intentionally distort the past and present of Tibet due to their ideological bias or out of consideration for their self interests. They created a 'Shangri-La' myth, wishing to keep Tibet in a backward primitive state forever," the white paper added.

It repeated China's assertion that exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama is intent on pushing for Tibet's independence to sabotage its development and stability.

The Dalai Lama, who fled China in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule, is considered a violent separatist by Beijing. The India-based Dalai Lama says he is merely seeking greater autonomy for his Himalayan homeland.

Be that as it may, what can the world do about it ?
US cannot risk its trade with PRC. Even GoI with its traditional leverage over Tibetans, religious-cultural affinity & geographic vicinity is an imbecile, castrated entity.

Be that as it may, what can the world do about it ?
US cannot risk its trade with PRC. Even GoI with its traditional leverage over Tibetans, religious-cultural affinity & geographic vicinity is an imbecile, castrated entity.

It's going to be hard for tibetians, and the problem is stuff like non violent resistance (this is what the dalai lama has been advocating) will not work,, they need to have a massive armed struggle. Atleast like whats happening in syria and constantly make cause problems with China,till the get tired of it and quit. Perhaps a pact with the other like minded people in the region.

Self-immolation does not seem to be helping them. Suicide rarely helps, even suicide-bombing has been counter-productive (LTTE) by collateral damage. Armed-resistance against PRC.....?....not an worthwhile option (unless someone of consequence backs the resistance to the hilt which is not happening anytime soon, & even if that happens, the chances are slim).

All that the Tibetans can do is, assimilate in the HAN deluge for now, but on their own terms (easier said than done but a safer option for long term benefit). Entrench themselves in the PRC's scheme of things & become indispensable (not to be taken for granted) for their academic, economic & demographic might). Build strength & leverage (buying influence in CCP/CMC power apparatus) & most importantly, increase their numbers.

Unless they multiply themselves with a renewed vigour (like there is no tomorrow), there is little hope for them. Make this a religious duty for every individual. Something that Muslims successfully do everywhere they are & acquire an indispensable nuisance value. Be it India or any democratic regime, their vote is vied for. Elsewhere (non-democracies except China, Muslims already rule).

Lesson is: Strength lies in numbers (demography-how quickly & permanently can you reverse the demography in your benefit), ideology (the militant aspect of Tibetan culture needs to be restored/revived) & patience (to strike at the most opportune time).

This is not the time. China is rising & the world has acknowledged. But, their decline is less than 4 decades away. Till then, flow with the tide (as Hon' Indian judge tells you).

For the Tibetans, I would say this:

Increase your numbers with a religious zeal, acquire brute strength (academic-technical, economic & political) through means at their disposal & develop the character (pre-Budhhist militancy) needed for assert themselves. As long as you don't have all of the above, you better strive to achieve them. Do not kill yourselves. Never helped. Wont help.

Instead, strike the dragon is when it ails. Strike hard with a momentum that dragons' wails can be heard all over. But first, acquire MIGHT. Then, the Gods (interested world-powers), too, would help you.

Again, all this is easier said than done but you are a hardly people, known for your perseverance & steadfastness in face of brutality.

The Miao live primarily in southern China, in the provinces of Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi, Hainan, Guangdong, and Hubei.

Some members of the Miao sub-groups, most notably Hmong people, have migrated out of China into Southeast Asia (northern Vietnam, Laos, Burma (Myanmar) and Thailand). Following the communist takeover of Laos in 1975, a large group of Hmong refugees resettled in several Western nations, such as the United States, France, Australia, and elsewhere. There has been a recent tendency by (H)mong Americans to group all Miao peoples together under the term Hmong because of their disdain for the Chinese term Miao.

The Miao live primarily in southern China, in the provinces of Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi, Hainan, Guangdong, and Hubei.

Some members of the Miao sub-groups, most notably Hmong people, have migrated out of China into Southeast Asia (northern Vietnam, Laos, Burma (Myanmar) and Thailand). Following the communist takeover of Laos in 1975, a large group of Hmong refugees resettled in several Western nations, such as the United States, France, Australia, and elsewhere. There has been a recent tendency by (H)mong Americans to group all Miao peoples together under the term Hmong because of their disdain for the Chinese term Miao.

China: has 9 million Miaos.

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Miao are in no way excluded from China's political process. Around a half-dozen members of the CCP Central Committee, several PLA flag officers, and at least three SOE party secretaries are Miao, as was the Governor of Yunnan province. This is actually disproportionately large representation, considering that 9m out of 1.3bn is less than 1% of the total population.

If you are going to occupy and annex a piece of territory, you may as well neutralize the capability of the hostile population before they become a sizeable threat. This does not mean genocide btw, just make them minorities in their own backyard.

If we had not adopted moral stances and pursued a similar aggressive assimilation strategy in Kashmir valley, perhaps we would have weakened the locals even before the jihad began, or we might have even wiped out the possibility of the revolt.

Miao are in no way excluded from China's political process. Around a half-dozen members of the CCP Central Committee, several PLA flag officers, and at least three SOE party secretaries are Miao, as was the Governor of Yunnan province. This is actually disproportionately large representation, considering that 9m out of 1.3bn is less than 1% of the total population.

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Neither are Manchus excluded.

They were once the rulers of China.

Today they are Manchu at 10.68 million or 0.77% of China's total population.

Less than 100 remain as skilled native Manchu speakers, most of whom are to be found in Sanjiazi in Heilongjiang Province

Aristocracy is no longer a dirty word in China, and those with ties to the nation's last imperial rulers are now embracing their past.

BEIJING â€” Nobody would suspect that this impish toddler is of noble lineage. Yiyi has the same buzz cut as other 3-year-old Chinese boys, the familiar habit of scattering his fleet of toy cars across the living room rug.

But his family name gives him away: Yehenala, a famous Manchurian clan that once ruled China.

When Yiyi was born, his father and grandfather made the unusual decision to give him the old Manchu name. Generations earlier, the family had shortened the name to Ye to disguise the fact that they were aristocrats in a communist country founded on the principle of overturning feudalism.

"We are proud of our royal blood," said the boy's father, Ye Jia, a 40-year-old state company employee who says he would change his name too if the bureaucracy wasn't so complicated.

The name is a mouthful in a country where almost all family names are written by a single character and pronounced with a single syllable. Yiyi is the only child with such an exotic name in his Beijing preschool class.

But his father thinks it will serve him well in the long run. "Even his teacher says he's special," Ye said.

Descended from a horse-riding nomadic people of northeastern China, the Manchus were the last imperial rulers of the country, establishing the Qing Dynasty, which lasted from 1644 until 1912. After the abdication of the last emperor, Pu Yi, his clan changed its name to Jin. The Yehenalas, related to Cixi, the empress dowager who was de facto ruler in the late 19th century, became Ye or Na.

A century later, ethnic Manchus are rediscovering their roots.

A few universities have revived the study of the nearly extinct Manchu language, which is more like Mongolian than Chinese. There are culture seminars to study the dance, food and music of Manchuria, even Internet forums. Many people have also begun using their Manchu family names, even if few are legally registered like little Yehenala Yiyi.

Although aristocracy is no longer a dirty word in China (daytime television is full of historical dramas about imperial times and luxury goods are advertised as fit for royalty), China's imperial kin continue to live modestly, not flaunting their lineage like European nobility.

The Ye family has faded black-and-white photographs of Cixi and other illustrious relatives in their brocaded costumes of old, but they are kept tucked away in a folder.

During the Cultural Revolution, Mao Tse-tung's decade-long purge of the elites, the stigma attached to being a member of the old aristocracy was so great that many imperial descedents were unaware of their own lineage. Ye Longpei, Yiyi's 70-year-old grandfather, didn't find out until he was an adult that his own grandfather had been the youngest brother of the empress Cixi.

His father, who was then close to dying, confided the family secret in 1975, in the waning days of the Cultural Revolution, during a walk to the Summer Palace, Cixi's retreat in northwest Beijing.

"That's how shameful it was to be part of the royal family. This is something that nobody would brag about," said Ye, a retired schoolteacher who lives with his son's family in a comfortable but nondescript two-bedroom walk-up apartment south of downtown Beijing.

Chinese history deals harshly with the Qing Dynasty. Pu Yi is still despised as a collaborator for having headed the puppet state of Manchuko, which was established by Japanese occupiers during the 1930s. Some memoirs about Cixi describe an insatiable sexual appetite and cruelty, although her relatives say the stories are fabricated.

"Cixi became the scapegoat for everything that was wrong with old China," said Na Genzheng, a 61-year-old descendant of one of the empress' brothers. One of the more outspoken family representatives, he keeps a photograph of Cixi flanked by tall vases, shrine-like, in a niche in his living room. He specializes in Manchu script, producing loopy calligraphy that looks a little like Arabic written vertically.

"People don't appreciate her contribution and the family's to Chinese culture," he said.

His illustrious ancestor, he said, "lived in a period of transition and promoted reforms learned from Western countries." Cixi's descendants held a large family reunion in 2008 on the 100th anniversary of her death and are trying to salvage her reputation.

Some things Manchu have been incorporated seamlessly into Beijing culture, such as the popular pastry saqima and the figure-hugging dresses known as cheongsam. Like the Yiddish woven into New York slang, Beijingers use Manchu-derived insults such as "moceng," meaning "slow," and "mama huhu," meaning "mediocre" or "careless."

There is a long, long way to go from rediscovering ethnic roots to full-on Yugoslavia-style secessionism. Decades, centuries, perhaps.

In the meanwhile, China will continue its inexorable growth, and grind down nation which stands in its way.

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No, no one is talking of secession as yet.

However, whereas earlier they were satisfied with their lot & identity including being assimilated as Han, they are now exerting their individuality and ethnicity.

Once this starts happening, then the issue of harmony and stability goes for a toss and everywhere there is turmoil.

Rongdi, Manyi, Nanyibeidi will get restive!

Even the shufan ç†Ÿç•ª and surely the shengfan ç”Ÿç•ª

Lest you say that there is no such thing, here goes:

The Liji gives this description.

The people of those five regions â€“ the Middle states, and the [Rong], [Yi] (and other wild tribes around them) â€“ had all their several natures, which they could not be made to alter. The tribes on the east were called [Yi]. They had their hair unbound, and tattooed their bodies. Some of them ate their food without its being cooked with fire. Those on the south were called Man. They tattooed their foreheads, and had their feet turned toward each other. Some of them ate their food without its being cooked with fire. Those on the west were called [Rong]. They had their hair unbound, and wore skins. Some of them did not eat grain-food. Those on the north were called [Di]. They wore skins of animals and birds, and dwelt in caves. Some of them did not eat grain-food.

Liji, as you might be aware is Record of Rites, which is a collection of texts describing the social forms, administration, and ceremonial rites of the Zhou Dynasty as they were understood in the Warring States and the early Han periods.

I am sure you are aware that the Budget for Public Security is way higher than Defence in China.

In the meanwhile, China will continue its inexorable growth, and grind down nation which stands in its way.

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Interesting turn of phrase - reminds me of the communist propaganda from the days of the cultural revolution. The picture of "enemies" and "conspirators" who stand in China's "rightful path" needing to be "ground down" by the collective power of the Han people.

External threats are a time worn tactic for forced unification. The constant need for the presence of an external enemy - (or internal enemies) who need to be defeated ("ground down") as a crutch for unification and "sacrifice" where the individuals must give up (or not ask for) certain things because the enemy is being ground down while the glorious fruits of the regime are highlighted is nothing unique. it is just interesting to see China using the same tactic used by oligarchies and tinpot leaders in much smaller countries. Both Mussolini and Hitler did that - they had "enemies" who were marked out so people could rally round their cause. Pakistan needs India and the kafir. China has all these enemies all round - all of whom need "grinding down" - it is "work in progress" - so many enemies of China - all needing to be ground down. Funny that.